Beyond The Chair™ Episode #11 :”How Social Media Should Fit Into Dental Marketing”

Welcome To This Brand New, Original Series Featuring 3 Dental Marketing Leaders In An Uncensored, No-Holds Barred Discussion That Cuts Through Misinformation & Confusion, Providing The Clarity You Desperately Need For Marketing Your Practice The Right Way, Right Now

Confused about how to leverage social media for your practice? In this episode, you’ll learn:

Why having a dedicated team member to respond to social mentions can mean the difference between several lifelong patients and a big, fat missed opportunity

Which age group is the fastest growing users of social media (HINT: It’s NOT Millennials!)

Precisely how social should fit into your marketing tool belt, and why selling via social can turn off potential patients instantly

Why posting pictures of your daughter’s wedding might result in more patients than a money-saving offer

Graig: Let’s talk a little bit about the hot potato in terms of the new kid on the block which is Facebook and social media and how it can be used, should it be used, does it work, does it not work, should I dabble in it and all those different things.

What’s your opinion on the Facebook craze where a lot of people are going right to Facebook and saying “Well, we’re just going to go start with a large social network like that”?

Josh: I think it’s important to have your brand and your property claimed, stake your brand before someone else does, before someone holds it hostage against you, tries to sell it to you like what we see with web addresses, in big companies we see happen from time to time. I think it’s important to have a presence. I don’t know if it’s worth devoting thousands and thousands of dollars to a month but I always say hey, there’s probably someone on your staff that’s on Facebook during the day anyway.

So maybe give them some reins, post some fun stuff about you and your team and your office and fun stuff that you’re doing, keep it light on the dental stuff, keep it more about the personal stuff, pictures of you and your kids fishing on your vacation, pictures of your team Christmas party, I think it’s very good to have those properties. I wouldn’t make that the tent pole of my marketing efforts but I think having that as a presence I think is important. People are there so I think it’s important for us to be there as well but I wouldn’t focus all of my energy there and ignore everything else.

Graig: Yes, I would agree with that. I think when it comes to social media specifically Facebook, I think it’s an opportunity to humanize yourself. It’s an opportunity to show that a dental practice and the doctor and the staff, they’re humans, they have Halloween parties, they dress up, they do Christmas things or whatever holiday specials going on.

It’s not something that needs to always be a promotional type thing you can engage but I put a giant asterisks on that because I think it’s not a magic bullet. It’s not something that’s going to magically get the phone to because Facebook and even Instagram and some of the other social sites are top of mind type stuff.

Like you said, if you already have a solid brand in place, your Google house is pristine and you’re getting new patients from those online properties and activities off of the social network, the Facebook is just a nice complement to that and I think that even if you’re doing ads on there, so if you’re paying to do offers and special things like that, that’s just top of mind stuff. It’s like, “Oh I did see Dr. Austin had maybe a new patient special” that you’ve posted once upon a time and then they go onto Google and they become a patient. It isn’t something that’s used as a direct vehicle all the time to push people in a certain direction because I do think you will frustrate patients and the prospective patient.

Josh: They will unsubscribe.

Graig: They will unsubscribe, they will be fed up with that. Every day they show up and there’s a cleaning offer in their feed where they just want to read about sports or something like that but they won’t get frustrated with posting holiday party, maybe you ran a 5k, something that’s very loose and conversational and don’t put the cart before the horse.

We build a social network for all of our clients and I think that’s critical because that’s part of the foundation but there’s a lot of information right now about people talking about trying to get into very specific verticals on Facebook and things like that and I think if you have a brand that’s in place and the machine is running, like it’s well-oiled, go ahead and dabble in those different funnels and internet marketing campaigns on social media but if you don’t have any of those things in place and your new patient flow isn’t consistent from those other things, you really shouldn’t be messing around your Facebook.

Josh: Focus on other things first.

Graig: Yes, focus on other things first because I think with that, that will allow you to one; keep a loyal patient base; referrals will refer more, because let’s face it, if friends of friends see that, the villains subscribe too.

So you don’t get that social reach that you would, that spider-web effect.

So make sure all your Google house is in order, make sure your reviews are fresh, all your properties are branded, make sure you have a consistent new patient flow coming in before you put any sort of monetary investment into the social media side and I think that way, you won’t be throwing good money after bad.

Josh: Absolutely.

Graig: I know you have a really good social presence but you’re more focused on the bread and butter of where people are.

Josh: It’s so secondary to the other- like your term Google house. The Google house is so much more important. The social media stuff is the sandbox in the backyard of the Google house. I’ll make sure it’s clean and I make sure that my kids can play in it and not worry about getting some weird fungus but at the end of the day, my focus is on the house and then on Saturday, we’re going to spend a few minutes in it.

I want to help you put an action plan together to get your practice moving in the right direction. Do NOT be a stick in the mud, who refuses to change. This year can be that year for change. Let’s do it!

One word of WARNING: This action plan will disappear with out notice! So don’t delay.

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